Arrangement of seating in a room is usually determined by how that furniture will be used. For instance, in a living room, sofas, chairs and other furniture may be placed to facilitate conversation among the persons sitting in the living room, or may be placed around a central point of interest in the room, such as a fireplace or television. However, sometimes the best arrangement of furniture for one purpose is not necessarily the best for other purposes. Furniture arranged for conversation may not allow comfortable viewing of the television from all of the seats, and some persons may be required to sit in uncomfortable positions in their seats if they want to watch the television.
It is known to incorporate a swivel mechanism into seating, such as a chair or recliner, to allow the user to rotate and adjust its orientation. U.S. Pat. No. 3,815,954, issued to Rogers et al. for a “Rocker Recliner Chair,” shows a chair that incorporates a swivel plate assembly that allows the chair to rotate on its base. The swivel plate assembly shown in the Rogers patent is typical of known swivel mechanisms used in furniture.
These known swivel mechanisms are not suitable for all types of seating. For instance, these known swivel mechanisms are not suitable for use with certain multi-seat furniture designs, such as certain sectional sofa designs. One issue of particular importance when incorporating a swiveling seat into certain designs of multi-seat piece of furniture is ensuring that there will be suitable clearance between the swiveling seat and the other parts of the furniture. Known swivel mechanisms are not always suitable for providing swiveling capability to components of a multi-seat piece of furniture because of these clearance issues. Another issue of importance is maintaining seat balance as the swiveling seat moves through its range of motion where the pivot is offset from the center of the seat. Known swivel mechanisms do not always provide adequate balancing support for the seat.